The Bharias call themselves Hindus and worship the village deities
of the locality, and on the day of Diwali offer a black chicken
to their family god, who may be Bura Deo, Dulha Deo or Karua, the
cobra. For this snake they profess great reverence, and say that he was
actually born in a Bharia family. As he could not work in the fields
he was usually employed on errands. One day he was sent to the house,
and surprised one of his younger brother's wives, who had not heard
him coming, without her veil. She reproached him, and he retired in
dudgeon to the oven, where he was presently burnt to death by another
woman, who kindled a fire under it not knowing that he was there. So
he has been deified and is worshipped by the tribe. The Bharias also
venerate Bagheshwar, the tiger god, and believe that no tiger will eat
a Bharia. On the Diwali day they invite the tiger to drink some gruel
which they place ready for him behind their houses, at the same time
warning the other villagers not to stir out of doors. In the morning
they display the empty vessels as a proof that the tiger has visited
them. They practise various magical devices, believing that they can
kill a man by discharging at him a _muth_ or handful of charmed objects
such as lemons, vermilion and seeds of urad. This ball will travel
through the air and, descending on the house of the person at whom
it is aimed, will kill him outright unless he can avert its power by
stronger magic, and perhaps even cause it to recoil in the same manner
on the head of the sender. They exorcise the Sudhiniyas or the drinkers
of human blood. A person troubled by one of these is seated near the
Bharia, who places two pots with their mouths joined over a fire. He
recites incantations and the pots begin to boil, emitting blood. This
result is obtained by placing a herb in the pot whose juice stains the
water red. The blood-sucker is thus successfully exorcised. To drive
away the evil eye they burn a mixture of chillies, salt, human hair
and the husks of kodon, which emits a very evil smell. Such devices
are practised by members of the tribe who hold the office of Bhumia
or village priest. The Bharias are well-known thieves, and they say
that the dark spots on the moon are caused by a banyan tree, which God
planted with the object of diminishing her light and giving thieves
a chance to ply their trade. If a Bhumia wishes to detect a thief,
he sits clasping hands with a friend, while a pitcher is supported on
their hands. An oblation is offered to the deity to guide the ordeal
correctly, and the names of suspected persons are recited one by one,
the name at which the pitcher topples over being that of the thief. But
before employing this method of detection the Bhumia proclaims his
intention of doing so on a certain date, and in the meantime places a
heap of ashes in some lonely place and invites the thief to deposit
the stolen article in the ashes to save himself from exposure. By
common custom each person in the village is required to visit the
heap and mingle a handful of ashes with it, and not infrequently
the thief, frightened at the Bhumia's powers of detection, takes the
stolen article and buries it in the ash-heap where it is duly found,
the necessity for resorting to the further method of divination being
thus obviated. Occasionally the Bharia in his character of a Hindu
will make a vow to pay for a recitation of the Satya Narayan Katha
or some other holy work. But he understands nothing of it, and if
the Brahman employed takes a longer time than he had bargained for
over the recitation he becomes extremely bored and irritated.